Situated on an area that the Tongva Native Americans once inhabited, Playa Vista is the first new community to be established on the Westside of Los Angeles in more than 50 years. The idea for Playa Vista began in 1998 when it was selected by President Clinton as one of the six communities in the nation to be a pilot project of the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH). Today it is once of the most modern and advanced communities in America but still feels much like small town America due to it's emphasis on community services and the health and welfare of its residents. The community features residential, commercial, retail and open space, creating a place to live, work, shop and play.

Situated about a mile from the ocean, Playa Vista is to the newly restored Ballona Freshwater Marsh and within easy reach of Santa Monica, Venice, Century City and LAX. The Playa Vista community balances housing, business, neighborhood shopping, parks and habitat protection. The community includes homes built for today's lifestyles by many of the nation's leading builders. The diverse collection of residences includes detached single-family homes, town homes, condominiums and urban-style lofts-all with state-of-the-art amenities. One of the forward-thinking amenities of Playa Vista is that residents are serviced with 100% recycled water.

Playa Vista was long known mostly for being where Howard Hughes constructed a private airfield runway, named Hughes Airport, and an aircraft factory with large hangars for his Hughes Aircraft Company (where he built the famous "Spruce Goose" airplane). Today most of the commercial business is internet or gaming related and video game giant Electronic Arts has a state of the art branch campus there. Belkin, ICANN and world renowned architect Frank Gehry all have their headquarters in Playa Vista, and The Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), a research institute of the University of Southern California (USC) is located in Playa Vista.